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to educate, inspire and equip the urban homesteaderWed, 29 Jul 2015 22:43:55 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.6The Water-Wise Home Book by Laura Allenhttp://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-water-wise-home-book-by-laura-allen/
http://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-water-wise-home-book-by-laura-allen/#commentsTue, 21 Jul 2015 19:47:03 +0000http://www.farmcurious.com/?post_type=product&p=8982The best book to learn how to conserve, capture, and reuse water in your home and landscape.]]>The Water-Wise Home: How to Conserve, Capture, and Reuse Water in Your Home and Landscape

Are you looking for ways to save water — or money? This accessible guide by Laura Allen, founder of Greywater Action, explains how to use water smartly and efficiently, increasing supply, saving money, reducing wear on your septic system, and fulfilling your home and garden needs. She describes proven conservation techniques, explains how to create a water-wise landscape, and provides illustrated, step-by-step instructions for setting up a waterless composting toilet as well as systems to reuse greywater, harvest rainwater, and more.

A definitive resource for the modern meat lover, with 125 recipes and fully-illustrated step-by-step instructions for making brined, smoked, cured, skewered, braised, rolled, tied, and stuffed meats at home; plus a guide to sourcing, butchering, and cooking with the finest cuts.

Although the tradition of preserving meats–known as “charcuterie” in French, “salumi” in Italian–is one of the oldest of all the food arts, the craft charcuterie movement has nevertheless captured the modern imagination, with scores of charcuteries and salumerias opening across the country in recent years. Perhaps no charcuterie is as well-loved and regarded as the San Francisco Bay Area’s Fatted Calf. With In the Charcuterie, co-owners and founders Taylor Boetticher and Toponia Miller make a wide array of meat products accessible to the home cook–from potted meats to roasts to sausages to confits (and everything in between). With more than 250 full-color photographs, this instructive and inspiring tome is a comprehensive resource for anyone fascinated by the art of preserving meat.

]]>http://www.farmcurious.com/product/in-the-charcuterie-book-by-taylor-boetticher-and-toponia-miller/feed/0The Art of Natural Cheesemaking – Book by David Asherhttp://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-art-of-natural-cheesemaking-book-by-david-asher/
http://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-art-of-natural-cheesemaking-book-by-david-asher/#commentsFri, 26 Jun 2015 19:16:01 +0000http://www.farmcurious.com/?post_type=product&p=8908more]]>Using Traditional, Non-Industrial Methods and Raw Ingredients to Make the World’s Best Cheeses

Most DIY cheesemaking books are hard to follow, complicated, and confusing, and call for the use of packaged freeze-dried cultures, chemical additives, and expensive cheesemaking equipment. For though bread baking has its sourdough, brewing its lambic ales, and pickling its wild fermentation, standard Western cheesemaking practice today is decidedly unnatural. In The Art of Natural Cheesemaking, David Asher practices and preaches a traditional, but increasingly countercultural, way of making cheese—one that is natural and intuitive, grounded in ecological principles and biological science.

This book encourages home and small-scale commercial cheesemakers to take a different approach by showing them:

• How to source good milk, including raw milk;

• How to keep their own bacterial starter cultures and fungal ripening cultures;

• How make their own rennet—and how to make good cheese without it;

• How to avoid the use of plastic equipment and chemical additives; and

• How to use appropriate technologies.

Introductory chapters explore and explain the basic elements of cheese: milk, cultures, rennet, salt, tools, and the cheese cave. The fourteen chapters that follow each examine a particular class of cheese, from kefir and paneer to washed-rind and alpine styles, offering specific recipes and handling advice. The techniques presented are direct and thorough, fully illustrated with hand-drawn diagrams and triptych photos that show the transformation of cheeses in a comparative and dynamic fashion.

The Art of Natural Cheesemaking is the first cheesemaking book to take a political stance against Big Dairy and to criticize both standard industrial and artisanal cheesemaking practices. It promotes the use of ethical animal rennet and protests the use of laboratory-grown freeze-dried cultures. It also explores how GMO technology is creeping into our cheese and the steps we can take to stop it.

This book sounds a clarion call to cheesemakers to adopt more natural, sustainable practices. It may well change the way we look at cheese, and how we make it ourselves.

]]>http://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-art-of-natural-cheesemaking-book-by-david-asher/feed/0The Complete Compost Gardening Guide – Book by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martinhttp://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-complete-compost-gardening-guide-book-by-barbara-pleasant-and-deborah-l-martin/
http://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-complete-compost-gardening-guide-book-by-barbara-pleasant-and-deborah-l-martin/#commentsMon, 01 Jun 2015 21:54:03 +0000http://www.farmcurious.com/?post_type=product&p=8843more]]>Turn the compost bin upside down with this natural Six-Way Compost Gardening System for keeping compost heaps right in the garden, rather than in some dark corner behind the garage. The compost and the plants live together from the beginning in a nourishing, organic environment. The authors’ bountiful, compost-rich gardens require less digging, weeding, mulching, and even planting. And here’s one of the best parts — no more backbreaking slogs from compost bin to garden. The authors even identify the plants that benefit most from compost and explain how the elements of a composted garden work together.
]]>http://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-complete-compost-gardening-guide-book-by-barbara-pleasant-and-deborah-l-martin/feed/0The Nourishing Homestead – Book by Ben Hewitthttp://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-nourishing-homestead-book-by-ben-hewitt/
http://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-nourishing-homestead-book-by-ben-hewitt/#commentsMon, 01 Jun 2015 18:15:39 +0000http://www.farmcurious.com/?post_type=product&p=8838more]]>A practiculture way to grow nutrient-dense food, produce healthy fats, and live the good life

The Nourishing Homestead tells the story of how we can create truly satisfying, permanent, nourished relationships to the land, nature, and one another.

The Hewitts offer practical ways to grow nutrient-dense food on a small plot of land, and think about your farm, homestead, or home as an ecosystem. Much of what the Hewitts have come to understand and embrace about their lives of deep nourishment is informed by their particular piece of land and local community in northern Vermont, but what they have gleaned is readily transferable to any place—whether you live on 4 acres, 40 acres, or in a 400-square-foot studio apartment.

Ben and Penny (and their two sons) maintain copious gardens, dozens of fruit and nut trees and other perennial plantings, as well as a pick-your-own blueberry patch. In addition to these cultivated food crops, they also forage for wild edibles, process their own meat, make their own butter, and ferment, dry, and can their own vegetables. Their focus is to produce nutrient-dense foods from vibrant, mineralized soils for themselves and their immediate community. They are also committed to sharing the traditional skills that support their family, helping them be self-sufficient and thrive in these uncertain times.

Much of what the Hewitts are attempting on their homestead is to close the gaps that economic separation has created in our health, spirit, and skills. Ben uses the term “practiculture” to describe his family’s work with the land—a term that encompasses the many practical life skills and philosophies they embody to create a thriving homestead, including raw-milk production, soil remediation, wildcrafting, Weston A. Price principles, bionutrient-dense farming, permaculture, agroforestry, traditional Vermont hill farming, and more. The Nourishing Homestead also includes information on deep nutrition, the importance of good fats, and integrating children into the work of a homestead.

The Hewitts’ story is reminiscent of The Good Life, by Helen and Scott Nearing, and is sure to inspire a new generation of homesteaders, or anyone seeking a simpler way of life and a deeper connection to the world.

]]>http://www.farmcurious.com/product/the-nourishing-homestead-book-by-ben-hewitt/feed/0How To Mulch Bookhttp://www.farmcurious.com/product/how-to-mulch-book/
http://www.farmcurious.com/product/how-to-mulch-book/#commentsThu, 30 Apr 2015 20:01:03 +0000http://www.farmcurious.com/?post_type=product&p=8722Mulching makes your garden and yard much easier to care for, helping to retain moisture, keep weeds in check, and protect young plants. This concise guide shows you exactly how to mulch for any situation, covering sheet mulching, feeding mulches, and living mulches for use in the yard, garden, and home landscape. It even includes a quick-reference chart of mulch types and a section on mulching for success with specific vegetables.
]]>http://www.farmcurious.com/product/how-to-mulch-book/feed/0Small-Space Vegetable Gardens Bookhttp://www.farmcurious.com/product/small-space-vegetable-gardens-book/
http://www.farmcurious.com/product/small-space-vegetable-gardens-book/#commentsThu, 30 Apr 2015 19:56:30 +0000http://www.farmcurious.com/?post_type=product&p=8719Small-Space Vegetable Gardens explains the basics of growing a bounty of edibles in a minimal amount of space. Andrea Bellamy, author of the award-winning blog Heavy Petal, shares all the knowledge she’s gained from years of gardening small: how to find and assess a space, and how to plan and build a garden. Bellamy also highlights the top sixty edible plants and offers complete information on how to sow, grow, and harvest them. This hardworking and enthusiastic guide teaches gardeners how to take advantage of the space they have—whether it’s a balcony, a patio, a plot in a community garden, or even a small yard—to create the food garden of their dreams.
]]>http://www.farmcurious.com/product/small-space-vegetable-gardens-book/feed/0A Kid’s Guide to Keeping Chickens Bookhttp://www.farmcurious.com/product/a-kids-guide-to-keeping-chickens-book/
http://www.farmcurious.com/product/a-kids-guide-to-keeping-chickens-book/#commentsThu, 30 Apr 2015 19:53:20 +0000http://www.farmcurious.com/?post_type=product&p=8716Chickens make wonderful pets, and Melissa Caughey (author of the award-winning blog Tilly’s Nest) provides all the information kids need to raise healthy chickens and have tons of fun doing it! Caughey shares her advice in an engaging way so that kids understand what it means to keep chickens and what kind of housing, food, equipment, and care the chickens will need to thrive. She also suggests lots of creative activities sure to spark enthusiasm and imagination, such as speaking chicken, creating a veggie piñata for the flock, and making a chicken fort in the backyard. She even offers ten egg-centric recipes that kids will love to make and eat, including egg drop soup and Mexican egg pizza. Includes a colorful pull-out poster!
]]>http://www.farmcurious.com/product/a-kids-guide-to-keeping-chickens-book/feed/0Kitchen Creamery Bookhttp://www.farmcurious.com/product/kitchen-creamery-book/
http://www.farmcurious.com/product/kitchen-creamery-book/#commentsThu, 09 Apr 2015 22:43:12 +0000http://www.farmcurious.com/?post_type=product&p=8595As the DIY movement continues to gain momentum, it’s no wonder home cheesemaking is the next hot topic. And from cheesemaking authority and teacher Louella Hill comes an education so timely and inspiring that every cheese lover and cheesemonger, from novice to professional, will have something to learn. Kitchen Creamery starts with the basics (think yogurt, ricotta, and mascarpone) before graduating into more complex varieties such as Asiago and Pecorino. With dozens of recipes, styles, and techniques, each page is overflowing with essential knowledge for perfecting the ins and outs of the fascinating process that transforms fresh milk into delicious cheese.
]]>http://www.farmcurious.com/product/kitchen-creamery-book/feed/0FARMcurious Fermenting Recipe Collection E-Bookhttp://www.farmcurious.com/product/farmcurious-fermenting-recipe-collection-e-book/
http://www.farmcurious.com/product/farmcurious-fermenting-recipe-collection-e-book/#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 00:28:29 +0000http://www.farmcurious.com/?post_type=product&p=8182Recipes from our Kickstarter campaign! Take your fermenting beyond sauerkraut and pickles with Grilled Fermented Corn Cobs, Garlic Dilly Beans, and Chipotle Carrots and more. Once you’ve made everything in this recipe booklet, you’ll start asking “what CAN’T I ferment?”
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